is that in any way on god's earth an iambic line?

[billy]

of loose barked silver birch and stretching oak

[milo]

of loose barked silver birch and stretching oak

It is perfect IP no subs

[billy]

great, i wasn't sure
leanne sort of inspired me to try a sonnet and i'm still at odds with what i thought i knew.
thanks for the quick answer

i suppose i should at least try and make the thread stretch out a little more,

does anyone feel threatened when they see a good poem written on the site, (not that everyone of even most will see a poem as a good poem. ) you know what i mean, i feel a bit like that i suppose when i see people pump out endless poems (or limericks) that are pretty spot on in form and substance. not that i ever feel shown up by a good poem, maybe more like a little disheartened.

[milo]

I feel inspired sometimes. (Jealous sometimes too). Mostly I think it makes me better though.

[billy]

i'm of the same mind, and if not better a chance of doing better

[Leanne]

does anyone feel threatened when they see a good poem written on the site, (not that everyone of even most will see a poem as a good poem. ) you know what i mean, i feel a bit like that i suppose when i see people pump out endless poems (or limericks) that are pretty spot on in form and substance. not that i ever feel shown up by a good poem, maybe more like a little disheartened.

I never feel threatened by great poetry -- like milo, I feel inspired. I love to see people breaking new ground, rather than just thinking they've done something new because they haven't bothered to read anything to find out if it's already been done.

---

and yes, that line is perfect IP -- now wrap a sonnet around it.

[billy]

what about if it's just new for them. for instance, after i read your sonnet i'm trying to write one as perfect, knowing of course i won't (but attempting to nonetheless) if i get even almost near it will be an achievement for me. does that make sense

[Leanne]

Trying new things is very different to claiming you're an innovator

Billy, that sonnet took me less than half an hour to write -- ask milo. It's just that I've had years (and years and years) of practise. There is no substitute.

[billy]

i've done the octet so far but am struggling with the volta (i think that's what it's called, or sestet.

and i belive you when you say it took a short time.

[Leanne]

The sestet. Volta means "about face" -- it's not so much a line as the point at which the sonnet changes from question to answer, or setup to conclusion.

[billy]

at this rate it would take me years and years to do four or five

---

The sestet. Volta means "about face" -- it's not so much a line as the point at which the sonnet changes from question to answer, or setup to conclusion.

yeah, i sort of boxed myself into a corner but i'll sort it out later

[Leanne]

And well it might. That's not a bad thing. I've written not just hundreds, but thousands -- to the point where if I needed to, I could write them in my sleep. Occasionally I think I do.

Do not beat yourself up because it's difficult. If it wasn't difficult, it probably wouldn't be worth doing.

[billy]

i'm not beating yet but i am thinking "if only I'd gone to school"

[cidermaid]

Back to your question of how a really good poem makes me feel - I think for the most part I feel inspired, but sometimes my aspirations then run ahead of me and when I then try my hand at whatever has inspired me, I then get frustrated and disillusioned because of my lack of skills. (As happened with my seasonal poem that turned into a bit of a monster).
I have to admit that my most frequent problem when "playing" with the real poets is my lack of response time. It takes me forever to work a metered or set format poem...so I often find that I will be inspired by some of the recent threads, to write a reply poem...but by the time I have got anything even half done the thread has moved on by contributions form the experienced poets and my offering would appear be so late to the party to be just odd...so I then don't post and feel discouraged.
This is not a complaint I love following these threads, they are truly inspirational because of the obvious skill levels required to fire out poems at such speed, I totally get the years of practice that make for this sort of skill, I've only being playing poet for a couple of years...but in time I hope I will be this competent and be able to join in with the games.

[billy]

i know what you mean. sometimes i find it hard to keep up with some of the shared poetry threads. i still tend to put the buggers up though cos i can be pretty shameless at times
have you tried the limerick thread yet, it one of the easier ones and let's be honest, no one gives a toss if we get one or two of them wrong the sonnet and the villanelle thread is a bit harder to join in with. i can knock a really bad sonnet out in 30mins but anything half near half decent would take me a few hours, i know this because i spent two hours in broken time doing one (though i can vouch for it's quality ) i think as long as we enjoy the poetry and try to improve we're on the right track

[Brownlie]

i know what you mean. sometimes i find it hard to keep up with some of the shared poetry threads. i still tend to put the buggers up though cos i can be pretty shameless at times
have you tried the limerick thread yet, it one of the easier ones and let's be honest, no one gives a toss if we get one or two of them wrong the sonnet and the villanelle thread is a bit harder to join in with. i can knock a really bad sonnet out in 30mins but anything half near half decent would take me a few hours, i know this because i spent two hours in broken time doing one (though i can vouch for it's quality ) i think as long as we enjoy the poetry and try to improve we're on the right track

It takes me quite awhile to write in iambic pentameter and then it takes me longer if I have to rhyme. It seems those skills can be developed, but people who have experienced interesting things in their life have something worthwhile to write about. Personally, my life is boring.

[milo]

i know what you mean. sometimes i find it hard to keep up with some of the shared poetry threads. i still tend to put the buggers up though cos i can be pretty shameless at times
have you tried the limerick thread yet, it one of the easier ones and let's be honest, no one gives a toss if we get one or two of them wrong the sonnet and the villanelle thread is a bit harder to join in with. i can knock a really bad sonnet out in 30mins but anything half near half decent would take me a few hours, i know this because i spent two hours in broken time doing one (though i can vouch for it's quality ) i think as long as we enjoy the poetry and try to improve we're on the right track

It takes me quite awhile to write in iambic pentameter and then it takes me longer if I have to rhyme. It seems those skills can be developed, but people who have experienced interesting things in their life have something worthwhile to write about. Personally, my life is boring.

nothing interesting has to happen in /your/ life as a poem doesn't have to be about you. Invent a narrator, give him/her an interesting life and have them write the poem for you as you sit with your feet up drinking a cold beer.

[billy]

It takes me quite awhile to write in iambic pentameter and then it takes me longer if I have to rhyme. It seems those skills can be developed, but people who have experienced interesting things in their life have something worthwhile to write about. Personally, my life is boring.

you have an imagination

[rayheinrich]

... Personally, my life is boring.

"Up until very recently", explains Dr. John Eastwood, a clinical psychologist at York University in Toronto,
"Psychologists weren’t working with a very good definition of boredom." Eastwood is one of a growing
number of researchers dedicated to understanding boredom; in the October 2012 issue of Perspectives
on Psychological Science, Eastwood and his colleagues published “The Unengaged Mind”, an attempt
to define boredom.

A short history of boredom:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-na...c=y&page=1

---

< a sign of boredom >

the sign says
"to be announced"
but why put a sign like that up?
maybe it should say:
"i wanted to tell you that i haven't made up my mind
as to what the fuck i will tell you so you'll just have to wait
but at least I'm being polite enough to tell you i don't really
know what the fuck is coming up and i don't even know
(and you'll have to excuse this personal aside on a sign this public)
what I'm going to be wearing tomorrow
hell i don't even know what I'm wearing right now
except for the shoes
i know which shoes I'm wearing
it's those ones with the really complex soles with the tiny groves
that take forever to get dog shit out of
and they swirl around making shapes that slightly resemble the water
at night
under the bridge down the block that's deep and scares me
because i always start to feel what it would be like to fall in
from standing too close which i always do and it would just take
some loose gravel a slight twitch from a tired knee or me
so i wanted to tell you that i haven't made up my mind
and that's why i put the sign up"

- - -

[milo]

... Personally, my life is boring.

I always get nervous when I see the void surreptitiously sneaking into otherwise harmless looking areas . . .

http://marvel.wikia.com/Void_(Dark_Sentry)_(Earth-616)